(30) And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice . . .--The peace and joy at home are contrasted with the judgments that fall on the enemies of Israel. They are exposed to the full thunderstorm of the wrath of Jehovah. "Hailstones and coals of fire" were the natural symbols of His anger.

Verse 30. - The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard; literally, the majesty of his voice, Mr. Cheyne renders, "the peal of his voice." Delitzsch understands fearful thundering, like that at Sinai (Exodus 19:16; Exodus 20:18), to be intended (comp. Psalm 29:3-9). The lighting down of his arm; i.e. the blow causing the destruction, of ver. 31, of whatever kind that destruction might be - blasting by lightning, plague, simoom, death by the visitation of God, as men slept, or any other sudden, sweeping catastrophe. With the indignation of his anger; rather, in fury of anger. With the flame of a devouring fire; rather, with a flame of devouring-fire. All the elements of storm are accumulated by the prophet, to express the terrible character of the coming judgment-lightning, and scattering (of crops?), tempestuous wind, and hail-stones.

30:27-33 God curbs and restrains from doing mischief. With a word he guides his people into the right way, but with a bridle he turns his enemies upon their own ruin. Here, in threatening the ruin of Sennacherib's army, the prophet points at the final and everlasting destruction of all impenitent sinners. Tophet was a valley near Jerusalem, where fires were continually burning to destroy things that were hurtful and offensive, and there the idolatrous Jews caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch. This denotes the certainty of the destruction, as an awful emblem of the place of torment in the other world. No oppressor shall escape the Divine wrath. Let sinners then flee to Christ, seeking to be reconciled to Him, that they may be safe and happy, when destruction from the Almighty shall sweep away all the workers of iniquity.And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,.... Or, "the glory of his voice" (n); his majestic voice, the voice of his word, as the Targum, giving orders for the destruction of the Assyrian army; this was heard by the angel who obeyed it: and such a voice will be heard, ordering the destruction of antichrist, and the antichristian powers, in the pouring out of the vials by the angels, fitly signified by the following emblems; see Revelation 16:1. This voice is commonly interpreted of thunder, which is the voice of the Lord, and a very majestic one, Psalm 29:3 and the destruction of the Assyrian army might be by thunder and lightning, and hailstones, and attended with such a tempest as here described, though not mentioned in the history:

and shall show the lighting down of his arm; or the strength of the arm of his power, as the Targum; his mighty arm, and the descent of it; meaning what should descend from heaven at the time of this tempest, as thunderbolts, balls of fire, hailstones, &c.; and by all which may be meant the heavy judgments of God, which fell upon his enemies, and were intolerable unto them: the metaphor is taken from the motion of a man in smiting another, who lifts up his hand, when it falls with the greater might, and rests upon him:

with the indignation of his anger; as when a man strikes in great wrath and fury: the heaping up of words here, and as follows, shows the vehemence and excess of anger:

and with the flame of a devouring fire; or, "of a fire devouring"; the Assyrian army; which, the Jews say, burnt their souls, destroyed their lives, but not their bodies. The Targum is,

"with the flame of fire, which consumes the graven images.''

The destruction of mystical Babylon will be by fire, Revelation 18:8,

with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones; with lightning, which rends things in pieces, and scatters them here and there, and with a violent storm of rain and hail; see Revelation 16:18.

(n) "gloriam vocis suae", V. L. Vatablus; "magnificam vocem suam", Piscator.